EASTERN EUROPE: 1% Socialism

When Wladyslaw Gomulka was swept into
power in the 1956 Warsaw upheaval, one of his first concessions was to
abolish forced collectivization of agriculture and let peasants go back
to farming their own land in their old individual way. So swift was the
rush to private ownership that within weeks collective farms had all
but disappeared from the Polish countryside.

Ever since, Communist Gomulka has been trying vainly to lure the
peasants back into what his government calls "cooperatives." Biggest
lures: fat, long-term loans to any group that wants to socialize
itself;...